Making a beer with toasted filbert nuts. I toasted then pulsed in a food processor to a fine meal consistency.
Should I add to the mash or the boil? I haven’t used nut before in a recipe so I’m clueless as to when and where to incorporate.
Thanks!!
I’d say neither and use extract like Rogue does for their Multi award winning hazelnut beer. Yeh, i realize that doesnt answer your question…
I wish I knew which of the extracts taste good vs the ones that taste like chemicals.
512 Brewing does a Pecan Porter. The ‘clone recipe’ says roast pecans in a 350F oven for 15min, checking every 5 min. Once deemed aromatic, coarse chop them in a food processor and add them to the mash grains
I will begin with the caveat that I have not used any of these in beer, but I have bought about a dozen different flavorings from Apex flavors so far to use for home soda and seltzer making, and I have been happy with everything I’ve used to date. My only complaint is that some of the flavors seem very “focused” (for lack of a better term). For example, Pineapple is very much “sweet pineapple”, so it helps to add a touch of orange or lemon to liven it up. I also use Boysenberry or Black Currant in combination with other berry or stone fruit flavors to fill them out. They are typically natural flavors and are intended for use in alcoholic beverages, and they really do taste pretty good. I spend more time dialing in the amount of citric acid or sweetener in my sodas than the flavoring.
Welp, I already have the nuts toasted and ground. Just needed to know mash or boil. I don’t know if one has any advantage over the other but afraid that if i add th BK it might extract unfavorable bitterness. Thats just a guess though.
I’m not opposed to extracts as long as it isn’t “chemically” derived. An alcohol based tincture would be fine though.
Lazy Magnolia in my neck of the woods uses roasted pecans in the mash of their Pecan Brown Ale. Conversely I hear Abita uses extract in their pecan beer. Both are solid but LM is a better beer.
With all flavor addition beers I think it’s best to add the flavors in different ways at different times during the process.
So I’d add the nuts in the mash and either dry nut or use extract at bottling.
Northwest out of Chicage is the one Rogue uses.
If I were a commercial brewery I would definitely use extracts for various reasons, most of which is cost, labor and ease of use. I thought about splitting betwix mash and boil 50/50 based on zero knowledge.
To your point on dry nut, you mean adding during fermentation or after completion of?
I would think after completion. It’s one of those try it and see … then tell us what to do! New Glarus’ cherry tart beer is alleged to include 3 different fruit/juice additions. It’s very common to add flavoring additions in different ways into one brew. I rarely fruit etc anything but when I do I now do it in multiple steps for best results.
I honestly don’t know if I would get enough extraction from the nuts as a dry addition. I think I will add to the mash this time, boil next time and then split between mash/boil following that. Of course that is dependent if I even like the beer.
Thanks for your replies.
Try a split batch, perhaps? Best of luck and let us know what you find. It sounds interesting. Cheers!
Agreed, report your experience when the brew is ready.
You can always make your own extract or tincture by soaking the nuts in alcohol. Then you can add to glasses of finished beer to see what works; scale that volume up and add it to your keg or bottling bucket.
Fermenter. I roasted crushed almonds with cinnamon and added post fermentation. The results were fantastic.
use of extract or an alcohol tincture are both better than adding actual nuts to beer IMO. I dont see a circumstance where adding fats to beer is a good thing. Seems like you’re just asking to end up with rancid or oily tasting beer.
Was not my experience with almonds
I thought about the chances of that. I added to the mash. I was more concerned with a beer that doesn’t show a nice head but I will find out.
A little followup on the beer.
I added the toasted hazelnuts (18 oz ground to a fine meal texture) to the mash for the entire 60 minutes. Total grain bill was 41 lbs.
It has been kegged and forced carbd’ for a little over a week. Although it is a little early to say its finished I had to draw off a pint today after work.
It has a very good aroma. Some toffee/caramel notes maybe. It poured with a decent amount of head but it subsided rather quickly, maybe lasted a half glass worth and no lacing. I was afraid the I wouldn’t have much head retention due to the possible fat content of the nuts but I think with more conditioning head retention may improve some. Maybe I will increase the co2. Taste is also good. It carries the toffee/caramel through with what I perceive as hints of chocolate. It has a smooth mouthfeel that tapers to a light dry finish. All in all I think with some tweaking it may be a great beer but at this point it is a good beer and worth another try.